Posted by Walker on July 07, 1998 at 12:57:44:
In Reply to: health effects of marijuana use posted by Chris on July 06, 1998 at 23:16:35:
: "Withdrawl symptoms and signs are not typically seen in clinical populations. In fact, relatively few patients ever seek treatment for marijuana addiction."
So some do seek help for addiction. In fact my ex-wife was one of them. She said she couldn't stop thinking about pot and it was driving her crazy. [if she wasn't already :)]
The therapist told her that a substance [called seratonin?] remains in the brain for 12-18 months after heavy use of pot. And it would take a while for her cravings to go away. Was he BSing her?
Another friend I have was also addicted to marijuana, He tried to quit once. But it was just too hard. Once he asked me to meet him at the Luxor hotel to discuss card counting. I'll never forget walking into that smoke filled room. I saw a bong for the first time. He had in front of him spread in a semi-circle various Mormon books like "Mormon Doctrine", the quad, "Gospel Doctrine", etc. He proceeded to "prove" scripturally how drug use was justified. His reasoning was disjoint and barely coherent. He couldn't stay on the subject long and told me how much he loved everyone whereas he used to hate everyone. He paid me $2/hr to count down a 6 deck shoe (which we all knew I wasn't very good at). He couldn't remember where his car was. And so on.
What is sad is that before pot, he was bright, extremely quick and fun to be around. He could count a 52 card deck perfectly in 20 seconds. Over time, pot took its toll on him. He became boring and tiresome. He could only talk about two things: gambling and Mormonism. He claimed he was at peace with the world, so I pretented to conjure up evil spirits and mockingly prayed to Satan. This really pissed him off. I guess it was funny to me to see the peace loving pot head stomp off in a tizzy. Well, it wasn't very compassionate of me but sheesh, He showed up high at my house uninvited all the time and I have kids.
I guess my point is that I don't find much comfort in studies which show marijuana is not addictive and has few side effects and isn't as dangerous as alcohol.
My friend was once a good driver. One day, he couldn't decide whether to exit the freeway or not, the result was he drove off the freeway, rolled his truck and is now a vegetable. My ex-wife was in at least two less severe accidents while on pot.
: Marijuana is a trifle compared to alcohol or tobacco. Why was it criminalized in the first place, when the other two are so insidious? That's what I would like to know.
A case could be made that these people were predisposed to become addicted; if it wasn't pot, it would have been something else. For this reason and the fact that it can't be controlled by law enforcement anyway. I throw my hands up and say, "let it be legalized". But I can't see agreeing with the idea that it's relatively a trifle.